VIENNA, November 20. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops have opened gunfire at monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) two times in the past two days, according to a regular daily update of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine made public on Wednesday.

One incident took place on Wednesday near the village of Marinovka, the other one was reported on Tuesday in the town of Debaltsevo. The OSCE monitors were not hurt.

On November 19, “12:38hrs, an OSCE convoy composed of two vehicles was travelling east from Kurakhovo (30km west of Donetsk) towards the city of Donetsk. Near the area of Mariinka, about 80m ahead of the convoy, there was a flat-bed cargo truck carrying a large green wooden box, with two uniformed personnel on board wearing helmets. The SMM observed tactical marks of two white vertical lines on the tail-gate of the vehicle and on the passenger door,” the document says. “One of the soldiers stood up and fired two shots in the direction of the OSCE convoy. The bullets struck about 2m from the second OSCE vehicle. The SMM staff travelling in this vehicle heard sharp sounds originating from road or bullet fragments impacting on their car.”

On November 18, the SMM was traveling towards Perevalsk, when it came under gunfire. They report that the SMM “was not allowed to pass” through a checkpoint controlled by Ukrainian forces at the entrance of a bridge in a northeastern suburb of the town of Debaltsevo. “Instead, the SMM was told to take a long roundabout route to bypass the bridge,” the report says. On the way back from Perevalsk, the mission came to the bridge and stopped at another checkpoint directly opposite to the one on the other side of the bridge. “As the SMM stopped in expectation of further command, a warning shot was fired by the CP staff in the direction of the OSCE car,” the document says.